CENTENNIAL SPIRIT

100 years of insurance the G.A. Mavon & Co. way

by Mike Ellis | Photography by Linda Horton

FOURTH-GENERATION Chairman Jerry Mavon and son, president Phil Mavon, of G.A. Mavon & Co. insurance agency.

Alot changes in 100 years, but certain things remain relatively unchanged. In 1916, Woodrow Wilson was the President of the United States, and the nation was two years from entering World War I. The Boston Red Sox defeated the Brooklyn Robins/ Dodgers to win the World Series.

That same year, Girard Aloysius (G.A.) Mavon founded G.A. Mavon & Co., an insurance agency, on south Halsted Street in Chicago.

One hundred years later, the business is still going strong, in the hands of the Mavon family.

Chairman Jerry Mavon, a longtime Hinsdale resident and G.A. Mavon’s grandson, said his grandfather only had an eighth-grade education, when he entered the insurance business collecting

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premiums by bicycle for Traders Insurance Co. of Chicago in 1902.

“That’s how he started in the business, riding his bike, collecting premiums door-to-door for an insurance company,” Mavon said.

Fourteen years later, G.A. Mavon founded his own agency on south Halsted Street, and a couple of years later, moved his offices to the Insurance Exchange building at 175 W. Jackson Blvd. in downtown Chicago, soon becoming the first tenant in the new annex section.

G.A. Mavon & Co. relocated once more to 222 S. Riverside Plaza above Union Station, before moving to its current Hinsdale address along Chicago Ave. in the downtown in 1979.

Mavon said the building was owned by Chuck Comiskey, former owner of the Chicago White Sox and a longtime Hinsdale resident.

He said their conversation began at a local swim meet, where Comiskey encouraged him to move out of downtown Chicago.

Comiskey’s original concept was to lease space to tenants like G.A. Mavon & Co., but he ultimately sold the building to Mavon, and leased his own office space in the building for a couple of decades.

“It’s really one of the best decisions that I’ve made in business in my 50 years, was to buy this building and be located here, close to home,” Mavon said, adding that it allowed him to be closer to his family members, while opening new client potential.

Mavon, a longtime Cubs fan, recalled a humorous anecdote of moving into Comiskey’s building.

“The first thing I did after we bought the building was plant the vines on the west side of our building to make it look like Wrigley Field,” he said. “He and I had a lot of fun with that.”

Today, G.A. Mavon & Co. has expanded into three companies: the original company, Gamco Premium Finance Co. and Mavco Insurance Agency.

President Phil Mavon, Gerry’s son and a fourth-generation member of his family’s business, said the companies are primarily focused on the Chicagoland area, and that their retail business concentrates on Hinsdale and contiguous communities.

Mavon said one distinguishing feature of the business has been offering clients “a lot of different options.”

“I think that’s something that has distinguished us over the years, is to give the clients a lot of different options, instead of being obligated to one particular insurance carrier, whether it’s wholesale or retail,” he said. “We’ll do what’s best for that client.”

While insurance, like many industries, has become more automated and less personal through the years, Phil Mavon said “service” continues to be the key to the companies’ success.

“In looking back at all of our history and our newsletters and the rest of it, it’s amazing how things haven’t really changed,” he said. “We’re a service business. ... Essentially, whatever way we can do it, using the latest technology... it’s still about service.

“That, I’d say, over the 100 years is what’s kept us going. We’re not in it to be the largest agency in Illinois—we definitely want to have the best service of anyone. That’s what’s stayed the same.” n

Chairman Gerry Mavon and President Phil Mavon